KEMI Badenoch has backed former leadership rival Robert Jenrick over his claim some migrants have “medieval attitudes to women”.
The Tory leader dismissed opponents’ calls to sack her Shadow Justice Secretary for his strident remarks on the grooming gangs scandal.
In a heated BBC interview, Mr Jenrick defended an X post where he stated that “alien cultures” and “medieval” views were to blame for the crimes.
It led Lib Dems to demand he lose his frontbench job for the “shameless” comments.
But a spokesman for Ms Badenoch said: “Robert Jenrick did an excellent job this morning explaining the need for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.
“The Lib Dems should spend less time worrying about tweets, and instead explain to the British people why they oppose an inquiry that would end the culture of cover-ups and get justice for victims.”
After Sir Keir Starmer accused Conservatives of “jumping on the bandwagon” – presenter Nick Robinson pointed out Mr Jenrick had not once raised the issue in Parliament.
The top Tory said: “Clearly more needed to be done, that’s why I think we have to take this forward, that’s why we do need to have a fully national inquiry.”
He added: “I have long advocated going further than that and saying you should have a full-life sentence if you are a grooming gang perpetrator, so you never see the light of day, so you go to jail, you don’t step foot out on the streets of our country in 10 years or so, as is happening at the moment.”
